World
Lecornu outlines a 54 billion-euro budget squeeze for France in 2027
France’s prime minister said the 2027 budget bill will aim for major spending restraint while keeping taxes unchanged. He argued the plan is intended to prevent the deficit from rising beyond 6.5% of GDP.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the 2027 finance bill will include a budget effort of about 54 billion euros, aimed at slowing the rise in public spending without changing tax policy.
In an interview with Le Figaro, Lecornu said that without savings measures, the 2027 deficit would move above 6.5% of GDP. France Info reported the same assessment, noting that he linked the plan to the growing burden of debt, population aging, pressure on social accounts and higher operating costs for local authorities.
According to details published by Le Figaro, the government estimates that, without corrective action, Social Security spending would rise by 22 billion euros. France would also need to find an additional 10 billion euros next year to finance its debt, amid a geopolitical backdrop pushing interest rates higher. On top of that, local authorities’ operating spending would automatically increase by 7 billion euros.
Lecornu rejected the idea that this would be an austerity budget, presenting it instead as an attempt to reduce the country’s dependence on public expenditure. As he told Le Figaro, the goal is to avoid harsher cuts later on.
He also said the state would lead the effort. Le Figaro reported that, excluding higher debt-service costs and the increase in military spending, the state budget would be frozen in nominal terms next year. At the same time, the defense budget would rise by 6.4 billion euros, while Justice, Interior, Research and Ecology would also receive higher allocations.
Other ministries, however, are expected to face sharp cuts. Le Figaro said the Labor Ministry would need to deliver 2.5 billion euros in savings, including choices over tools expanded during the Covid crisis and tighter targeting of the CPF professional training scheme. The newspaper also reported that public operators and agencies would see their funding reduced, and that the civil servants’ index point would be frozen, a measure Lecornu said would save another 2 billion euros.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
